Smiles

SAMUEL SMILES (1812 - 1904)

The Scots writer and social reformer studied medicine at Edinburgh and published Physical Education in 1838. He practised as a doctor in Haddington and Leeds, where he became editor of the Leeds Times. Smiles was also involved with railway administration and eventually became secretary of the Southeastern railway 1854-66. While at Leeds, Smiles met George Stephenson and wrote a biography of him in 1857. His most famous work was Self-Help (1859) with its short lives of great men and the admonition: 'Do thou Likewise' - the ideal Victorian school prize. Smiles wrote many other improving works, including Character (1871) Thrift (1875) and Duty (1880), as well as 'Lives of the Engineers' (1861- 62).

Smiles' daughter married a Blyth sea-captain named Dryden. When she fell ill with typhoid in 1880, Smiles came to South Shields to visit the couple at 5 Ravensbourne Terrace, now part of Beach Road, and stayed at the house for some time.

Smiles wrote of the North East:

'As you pass through the country at night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at many points; the blaze of coke-ovens, iron-furnaces and coal heaps reddening the sky to such a distance that the horizon seems to be a glowing belt of fire.'

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
SAMUEL SMILES (1812 - 1904) The Scots writer and social reformer studied medicine at Edinburgh and published Physical Education in 1838. He practised as a doctor in Haddington and Leeds, where he became editor of the Leeds Times. Smiles was also involved with railway administration and eventually became secretary of the Southeastern railway 1854-66. While at Leeds, Smiles met George Stephenson and wrote a biography of him in 1857. His most famous work was Self-Help (1859) with its short lives of great men and the admonition: 'Do thou Likewise' - the ideal Victorian school prize. Smiles wrote many other improving works, including Character (1871) Thrift (1875) and Duty (1880), as well as 'Lives of the Engineers' (1861- 62). Smiles' daughter married a Blyth sea-captain named Dryden. When she fell ill with typhoid in 1880, Smiles came to South Shields to visit the couple at 5 Ravensbourne Terrace, now part of Beach Road, and stayed at the house for some time. Smiles wrote of the North East: 'As you pass through the country at night, the earth looks as if it were bursting with fire at many points; the blaze of coke-ovens, iron-furnaces and coal heaps reddening the sky to such a distance that the horizon seems to be a glowing belt of fire.'
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